7 Common Core education questions answered

A: A new multistate standardized test administered via the Internet aligned with Common Core standards.

Q: What is the Field Test?

A: The Field Test, which is running from March 25 through June 6, is intended to find problems in the test itself and in the technological infrastructure required to administer it.

Q: How does this impact the standardized tests that a school normally conducts each spring?

A: The state is not administering its regular California Standards Test (CST) and California Modified Assessment (CMA) tests this year.

Q: How is this test different from other standardized tests?

A: Instead of choosing between four choices, the new tests include essays, manipulating objects on-screen and many other interactive elements. Students are also asked to show their work. The computerized tests also offer different sets of questions, in different order, to each student, to minimize cheating.

A: Not at all. Individual students aren’t even being matched up with their test scores, and how they do cannot be held against them.

Q: When will my child’s school begin taking the test for real?

A: The state currently expects to begin conducting the new Smarter Balanced standardized tests next spring, although some Southern California educators doubt everyone will be ready by that point and predict another year of field tests in the 2014-2015 school year.